Unsurprisingly, many of these men and women were veterans and so it seems especially fitting today to provide them a place for their voices to be heard.

They came of age in the Great Depression and World War II. In their oral histories, they told of “harrowing moments when their lives hung in the balance on battlefields from Normandy to Iwo Jima, on the seas of the Pacific and in the skies above Europe.”

Here is Neal Pike, Rutgers Engineering, Class of 1954:

“If you want to grow up in a hurry, just go get into a firefight. When we put the ship in commission out in Mare Island, after it was launched, we were a bunch of kids. After the first patrol, we were men. It’s amazing how fast you mature. I remember that change there, just a complete sea change in the crew.”

Clark J. Gutman, Rutgers College, Class of 1942:

“A Japanese Mitsubishi bomber was making a run on us and I could actually see the pilot. Our guys shot the plane down and there’s bullets going all around. Why I didn’t choke, I don’t know. It was like in a movie. It was frightening because it was unknown. I’ve always said if you can come out in one piece and you don’t see any horror, then the Navy was a great experience.”

William Neubauer, Rutgers College, Class of 1941:

“My mother, god love her, encouraged me to go to Rutgers university. I ended up as one of the Cadet Officers, and was offered a chance for commission in the Reserves, which I accepted. Then, in December of 1941, after Pearl Harbor, I received an alert that I was going to be called up to duty. I went on to active duty, January 26, 1942, and that was the slight detour that lasted 27 years in the Army.”

Ralph E. Logan, Rutgers College, Class of 1950:

“I guess the best statement I could have made to you is that war is hell. It’s just plain hell. Having been in the Battle of the Bulge, where the weather conditions were absolutely horrible, with the snow and the freezing temperatures, just made it tougher.”

Christopher Maggio, Rutgers Engineering, Class of 1943:

“Wars are fought on the basis of morale, on the basis of destroying the enemy as quickly as you can, and minimizing your casualties. However, we had to learn that the hard way. After a lifetime on this earth, I feel it’s horrible than man had to destroy man, but that’s the way it is.”

These are but a few briefs from the more than 700 life-course oral histories available at the Rutgers Archive. Indeed, the site contains 29,000 pages of fully text-searchable transcripts. The site holds the stories of:

. Alumni and/or New Jersey residents who served during times of conflict;

. People with a story to tell about New Jersey's rich social and cultural history;

. Men and women who helped shape the history of Rutgers University.

The site is open to students, teachers and scholars free of charge for educational purposes. It is, in a word, a treasure.

I told one part of the story, about the Tuskegee Airmen who were also Rutgers graduates, two years ago.

You can learn a lot more by spending time ”in the archives.” New Jersey's men and women have compelling stories to tell. And more people in our state should know about what is being done here at Rutgers, at the Oral History Archives, to keep their memories alive.